Wednesday Morning Roundup

Today in the roundup: Junie B. returns to DCT, TBT has a new home and the stamper of a million hands.

CTA TBD

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS: Junie B. Jones, that mischievous first grader, is back at the Dallas Children’s Theater in the holiday-themed Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! This time around, she must navigate the tricky task of participating in a Secret Santa exchange. “One of the things DCT’s production does best is showcase directors like [Nancy] Schaeffer and actors like the ones in this cast, who portray kids so genuinely you forget you are watching adults,” Cathy O’Neal says in her theaterjones.com review. Meanwhile, Nancy Churnin writes on dallasnews.com that, “This touching tale reveals the best of what Junie B. and Christmas are all about.” The show runs through Dec. 23.

TBT’S NEW HOME:Texas Ballet Theater has a new home a few blocks away from its previous one in Fort Worth. The biggest upgrade of the new place is that it has a rehearsal space as large as the stages the group performs on. But not everything is perfect in TBT land. The group still laments the loss of live music for its performances. “In 50 years with ballet, as performer and director, I’ve never worked with a company that didn’t have a live orchestra,” Artistic Director Ben Stevenson tells fwweekly.com in a story that discusses why the musicians are no longer a part of the show. “It’s so important to the performance.”

BEHIND THE SCENES: DC9 at Night has a cool new feature in which they’ll be interviewing the folks who help a live music show come together. This week’s subject is Sean Wayne Leseman, who’s worked the door at a number of Deep Ellum venues. And in that time, he’s stamped plenty o’ hands. “I want to say it’s in the millions. It’s easily in the hundreds of thousands.”

Stephen Becker produces the shows Think and Anything You Ever Wanted to Know for KERA. As part of the Art&Seek team, Stephen produces radio and digital stories, along with the podcast "The Big Screen," with Chris Vognar, movie critic of The Dallas Morning News. View more about Stephen Becker.